NDIS Personal Care

What is NDIS Personal Care?

NDIS personal care is support with the most personal daily living tasks — showering, dressing, grooming, toileting, continence support, medication prompts or medication support where appropriate, eating support and daily hygiene routines. It is the most intimate end of daily support, and it is funded where it is reasonable and necessary because the person needs support to complete essential daily activities.

Personal care usually sits under Core Supports → Assistance with Daily Life, often described as Daily Personal Activities. It can be delivered in a person's own home, in supported accommodation, in a SIL arrangement where SIL is approved, or in a Short Term Accommodation / respite setting where that support is part of the approved service.

What does NDIS Personal Care cover?

• Showering and bathing — including assisting with transferring in and out, washing and drying
• Getting dressed and changed — including choosing clothes that suit the weather and activity, and help with zips, buttons, shoes or other clothing fasteners
• Toileting and continence support — including catheter care, bowel routines, managing accidents with dignity
• Personal hygiene — oral care, hair, nails, shaving, hygiene products
• Medication support — prompts to take medication, application of creams, eye drops (within scope of practice)
• Eating and drinking — meal prompts, set-up, assistance with cutting food, supervision for swallowing safety, implementing Mealtime Management Plans
• Skin integrity checks — pressure-area checks for participants with reduced mobility
• Positioning and transferring — moving safely from bed, chair, shower

Personal Care vs SIL — what's the difference?

Personal care is a type of support. SIL is a home-and-living support arrangement that may include personal care.

If you live independently and need a worker to come to your home to help you shower, dress or get ready for the day, that is usually personal care funded under Core Supports → Assistance with Daily Life.

If you live in a shared supported home where staff are present across the day and night, and they help with showering as one of many daily tasks, that is personal care delivered as part of a Supported Independent Living (SIL) arrangement.

If you stay somewhere for short-term respite and staff help you with showering, dressing, meals and daily routines while you are there, that is personal care delivered as part of Short Term Accommodation (STA).

The support need may be similar — help with daily personal activities — but the funding arrangement, claiming rules, setting, roster model and documentation may be different.

Can I have Personal Care without SIL?

Yes. You do not need to live in SIL to receive personal care. Many NDIS participants receive personal care while living independently, with family, or in another private living arrangement.

Personal care is commonly delivered through scheduled support visits — for example, a worker may attend in the morning to assist with showering, dressing and getting ready for the day, and another support may be rostered later for evening routine, medication prompts, meals or bedtime support.

However, under the SCHADS Award, providers generally need to roster part-time and casual disability support workers for a minimum 2-hour engagement for each shift or each period of work in a broken shift. That means even if the personal care task itself only takes 45–60 minutes, the rostered support may need to be planned as a 2-hour visit, or combined with other appropriate supports such as laundry, meal preparation, household routines, community access preparation or skill-building. Fair Work says part-time and casual employees doing disability services work generally receive a minimum payment of 2 hours for each shift or work period in a broken shift.

The exact model depends on your NDIS funding, support needs, routines, worker availability and the provider's employment obligations.

1:1 vs shared support

Personal care is usually delivered 1:1, because tasks like showering, dressing, toileting, continence support and grooming are private and require the worker's full attention.

Shared support ratios, such as 1:2 or 1:3, are more common in SIL or group settings for broader household routines, meal preparation, social activities or community participation. But where a participant is receiving direct personal care, that support is generally treated as an individual support moment, even if they live in a shared supported home.

Dignity, consent and choice

Personal care is intimate. How it's delivered matters as much as that it's delivered. At Prospect Hill we work to:

• Maintain dignity at all times — closed doors, modesty preserved, the participant's pace
• Match worker gender preference where possible (especially for showering and toileting)
• Document and follow participant preferences for routines — they're not preferences for the worker's convenience, they're the participant's life
• Use a positive behaviour support approach when participants find personal care distressing
• Build trust slowly with new workers, especially for participants with trauma backgrounds

Choosing a Personal Care provider

Things to ask when comparing providers:

• How are workers screened and trained for personal care specifically?
• How is gender preference handled?
• What happens if my preferred worker is sick? (continuity matters for personal care)
• How is the support documented and reported?
• What's the policy on cultural and religious considerations during personal care?
• How does the provider handle complaints about a specific worker?

Can I self-manage Personal Care funding?

Yes — many participants choose to self-manage their Personal Care funding. You then hire workers directly (often through a platform like Mable or Hireup, or through your own networks). The trade-off is more control and often lower rates, in exchange for taking on the employer responsibilities — finding cover when a worker is sick, handling tax and super, managing leave.

Working with allied health

For participants with complex needs — manual handling, swallowing/dysphagia, behaviour support, complex medication, continence — Personal Care should be planned alongside the relevant allied health professional. We work closely with OTs, speech pathologists, dietitians, behaviour support practitioners and continence nurses to ensure the personal care plan is safe, dignified and effective.

Why choose Prospect Hill for Personal Care

We accept plan-managed, self-managed, and NDIA-managed participants. Our Personal Care is delivered as part of our 24/7 SIL homes and as part of respite stays at our supported homes — same training standards, same screening, same approach to dignity in every setting.